The Leon County Commission and Tallahassee City Commission have been fighting for months over the fire service fee and other issues. Now, it seems like they are headed towards a resolution.
Leon County Commission Chair Christian Caban and Tallahassee Mayor-elect Jeremy Matlow held a press conference Thursday outside of city hall to announce a tentative agreement resolving the fire service fee standoff. Caban says he worked it out with Matlow shortly after he was elected last week.
“We got on the phone and we talked about how to rebuild our broken relationship between our two governments. We didn't need a mediator. We didn't need lawyers in a room. We needed two leaders willing to put our community first,” Caban said.
Matlow says the agreement will settle the uncertainty about who would provide fire services in unincorporated Leon County.
“This agreement would ensure that the City of Tallahassee Fire Department remains the premier provider of fire services for both the city and the county. It would protect the fire department's revenue as paid into by the county. It provides for a uniform rate collection practice, equitable billing, and ensures the city and the county conduct rigorous audits and agree on the final costs and commit to pay their fair share,” Matlow said.
Part of the tentative agreement includes the city submitting a detailed fire budget to the county annually, requirements that the county purchase the land of fire stations in the unincorporated county, the building of a new Southside fire station and locking in the agreement for 20 years.
Reporters in attendance were handed these documents spelling out the agreement's provisions:
That agreement isn’t set in stone.
It will still have to be ironed out by city and county staff, reviewed by legal representatives of both government bodies, and voted on by both the city and county commissions.
The dispute the agreement is looking to settle had escalated for months, reaching a high point in September 2025 when the City Commission voted 3-2 not to renew its fire service agreement with Leon County after county commissioners rejected a proposed increase in fire service fees.
Matlow opposed ending the agreement as a commissioner and resolving the standoff was one of the issue's he campaigned on in his run for mayor. His election, plus the election of commission newcomer PJ Perez, has shifted the 3-2 split that dominated Tallahassee's commission for years and led to the vote to end the agreement.
Caban said he is calling a special meeting of the Leon County Commission on Nov. 16th at 3 p.m. to go over the tentative agreement, and Matlow said he would bring it up during the city’s commission meeting on Nov. 18th.
